Fear of reverse dives - (dive and reverse 11/2)

Question
QUESTION: My daughter is a collegiate diver.  She has been diving for 6 years and throughout her entire career she has battled fear of reverses.  When she gets them off, they score 5 to 6's.  Additionally she had hip surgery summer of 2010 and was redshirted last season.  She has been training and has all her dives back except the reverses.  
What suggestions can you offer to assist with overcoming her mental blocks.  She states she has tried visualization and it has not helped.  Any other ideas would be welcomed
Thanks in advance

ANSWER: Hi -

The problem your daughter is going through is common in this group of dives. Even the most elite divers go through fear of reverses at some point in their career. The key is how quickly you can overcome this fear because the longer you do not do the group, the longer it takes to conquer the problem.

In order to answer this question correctly, I need some more information:

1. Has she had a very bad experience doing this group, like contacting the board, being too close or crashing on the entry?

2. Is she good in the back group, back dive and back 1 & 1/2? Doing this group poorly will make reverses difficult.

3. Is the reason she does not do the group due to balking or is it that she just will not pursue the reverse group in practices?

4. Does she have access to dry land equipment like dry boards and trampolines with overhead spotting equipment? If she does, will she do the reverse group in the belt?

Any other information you can give me about her practices and what she is trying to do get the group back would be helpful.

Please ask a follow up question with these answers and I will have a reply this week.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The answers to your follow up questions
Not sure if this is the correct format of if i was supposed to reply via email address provided

In order to answer this question correctly, I need some more information:

1. Has she had a very bad experience doing this group, like contacting the board, being too close or crashing on the entry? No she has never had a bad experience and has never "smacked" even.  She is usually across the pool so close to the board is not an issue.  When she gets them off, they are usually good. (Reverse dive ~5-7 range) and 1&1/2 usually 4-6's

2. Is she good in the back group, back dive and back 1 & 1/2? Doing this group poorly will make reverses difficult.  She does these well Very nice back 1&1/2 pikes

3. Is the reason she does not do the group due to balking or is it that she just will not pursue the reverse group in practices? Actually both.  She will balk b/c her coach will make her do them in practice, then we have tears and "hissy fits".  Another concern is that she will do do OK with them, then all the sudden just "not be able to get it off the board"  The issue is also complicated b/c she had hip surgery and had to take about a year off.  

4. Does she have access to dry land equipment like dry boards and trampolines with overhead spotting equipment? If she does, will she do the reverse group in the belt? Yes to dry board, No tramp at her pool.

Additionally she has battled fear in previous athletic lives (she was a level 9 gymanst and quite due to fear issues)  She has had issues with Inwards and backs periodically, but has worked thru them relatively successfully.  The issues seem to be worse the better she is diving.  She is attends Florida Gulf Coast University and was 3rd on 1m in 2010 at the conference championship.  

As mentioned above, she was off for a year and is working her way back.  Her college coach has gone home for the summer to work so she is kind of coachless at the moment and trying to train by herself.  We have talked about visualization (I was a national gymnastics team member MANY years ago so I have tried to help her with some of the tips I learned regarding fear) She has come home and went yesterday to her high school coach, but only did drills.

Hope this helps!

Answer
Kevn -

Now that I have more information I will try and help her figure out this problem with the reverse group. It is apparent that she does not have any physical problems figuring out how to the group and can do it safely so I will just concentrate on the mental aspects.

Her fear in gymnastics has carried over to diving so that is most likely the source of her current problems.The fear level is the same in both sports so it is something inherent that maybe existed before she even tried gymnastics. The two sports attract risk takers (especially diving)so it could be she is not predisposed to being the personality type that is typically found in these types of challenging sports. Not all gymnasts and divers are risk takers, just most.

Diving coaches, especially college coaches, must require their divers to practice all five groups. I do not think her balking comes from her coach making her do reverses. Her balking or not doing the group at all is her choice. It is not a result of having to practice the group.Tears and hissy fits are more common in girls than boys. She may be more athletically immature than most college female divers and it is going to take her longer to get over this reaction to having to practice the group.

Fear is a very primitive human emotion.It is very difficult to figure out and I am certainly not a sports psychologist but I do read a lot about how to overcome fear as diving has a huge mental aspect to it. Her are some psychological facts for her to understand:

1.Divers should properly focus their attention to meet the demands of the various parts of the performance of any given dive. During the execution of the dive,the diver should be thinking about the process ("how to")aspects of the performance rather than the outcome.

2.There are 4 types of attention control in diving:

 A. Broad External Attention can be a source of distraction for divers.
 B. Narrow External Attention is utilized after the diver has begun moving through the dive like spotting or getting ready for the entry.
 C. Broad Internal Attention is optimal for a diver thinking about the mechanics of the dive to be done. It can be a source of distraction though if the diver thinks too much when executing a dive, especially a stressful one.
 D. Narrow Internal Attention is needed by divers when preparing for any dive. A diver should use this type of attention right before getting on the board.It can be a source of distraction after the diver has begun the steps and the hurdle if the diver stays in narrow internal attention when the attention needs to be externally directed.

3. In addition to understanding the four types of attention, it is important to retain flexibility in shifting among them in order to utilize the correct type of attention in the present situation.Utilizing the correct type of attention for a given circumstance is not only the safest move, but it is also the first step in concentration. The other parts of concentration are being in the "here and now" by focusing on one thing at at time with as little "mental noise" as possible.

4. After feeling in control of attention, concentration and stress related areas, it is important to distinguish the types of thinking. There three types of thinking in diving:
 A. Process Thinking is the "how to do" parts of the move on which the diver is focused.

 B. Outcome Thinking is the "what I did" part of the move. It is the focus of accomplishment rather than the steps it took to do the dive. Divers must think of executing the proper process and not the outcome of making the dive.

 C. Negative Outcome Thinking are the negatives of doing the dive wrong or hitting the board.If divers are in outcome thinking they will distract themselves to the point of not being able to the dive they need to do.

It seems that she is stuck in negative outcome thinking and has a lot of mental noise. There is a part of her brain that is telling her not to do reverses. She is the only person who can turn this voice off. If she can turn off the negative voice and let her body do a dive she already knows how to do she will start to overcome this problem. I tell divers it is OK to be afraid. It just cannot be a reason to not do the dive. I say "Feel the fear and do the dive anyway".
"Turn your brain off and let your body do the dive". This is also known as "Stupid Smarts"! Brain in the off position and body in the on position results in a non mental smart dive.

I really hope she can change this problem over the summer as some college coaches will simply not continue to put up with it regardless of the divers ability on other groups. I know of a female diver in the SEC conference who lost her scholarship and was dismissed from the team for this very reason of refusing to practice a dive and purposely failing it in meets.

I will leave you with my favorite quote about fear:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and through me.And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.Only I will remain" Quote by Frank Herbert in the book "Dune"

Good luck and keep diving.